Tuesday, June 12, 2007

Revisited: Does this thing work?

Welcome back to retrospective week here at the Doctor Anonymous blog....

So, here is a little synposis of how this little blog got started. As I have probably remarked before, my first exposure to blogging was with political blogs. And, as I did further exploring, I wondered whether there was any blogs about medicine.

I think back then, I typed "doctor blogs" in a search engine somewhere, and one of the first blogs that came up was Fat Doctor. I read every single post she wrote and was captivated by the story telling. Of course, this was in early 2006 when she only had been blogging for a few months.

For the months following, I kept asking myself, "Could I do that? Could I write about myself or write about medicine or both?" Like most bloggers-to-be, I went back and forth.

The next step for me was to go from "blog lurker" to "blog commenter." I remember commenting on her blog and other blogs. And, it was a good time. I was amazed that people were commenting on my comments. The back and forth conversations and banter was fascinating to me. My blog confidence grew, and I knew I had a decision to make. Could I go from "blog commenter" to "blog writer?"

I decided to go for it. For an introverted-type person like me, to risk something like this (for me) was huge. The next step was deciding on a blogger name and blog name. I was reading anonymous lawyer at the time and thought that anonymous doctor would be kind of interesting, but found out the name was taken.

How about the name Doctor Anonymous? I could use "Dr. A" as kind of a nickname. I hoped that it wasn't taken as well. I typed it in, and, Voila! A blog and a blogger are born.

Now, what the heck do I talk about? And, thus comes my very first post on Monday, June 19, 2006 called Does this thing work? It was just four of five lines just to get me started...

I've got to admit off the bat that I'm no techno-expert. This entire sign on process was kind of traumatic. Is this what this blog is going to be about -- whining? Hope not. I'm glad just to be up an running. Don't worry, this sparse blogspace will be filling up soon. Just as soon as a figure out what to talk about...

I was so proud of myself when I hit the "post" button. I had no idea was going to happen. But, I told myself at the time that even if I got zero comments, I had an idea out there in the blogosphere for everyone to read. That concept amazed me then and continues to amaze me now.

It's hard to believe that almost a year has passed since that time. But, I still remember those thoughts like it was yesterday. I'm going to reflect on other posts in the next week during the countdown to my blogiversary. Hope you enjoy this series, because I know I am!